Uniforms and Dressing Up

Anyone who knows me at all will be well aware that I have never been a great fan of dressing up. I never feel very comfortable wearing a suit, which may be due to me having to wear school uniform throughout my time at secondary school. Back then in the 70s, all my friends at the local school were free from such dress codes! That's why I have always found it rather ironic that I ended up with a calling and a role that required me to wear various ecclesiastical garments in order to officiate at public services of worship in the Church of England.

Since theological college days, I have frequently met people who got very excited about the designs of their stoles, cottas, chasubles and such like - terminology that I am sure mystifies anyone outside the church community (and many within it!) My own attitude has always been that the uniform comes with the role, and therefore being ordained in the C of E carries with it an expectation to wear it (there is some flexibility these days) In a previous role I visited a lot of churches, and it only seemed courteous to wear whatever they expected me to wear.

There is, however, one exception to this rule, and here it is:

Last Sunday was Pentecost Sunday, when churches that use colours wear red. Each year since Debbie died, it has given me an opportunity to wear one her stoles that I kept. My first Sunday back after her funeral was Pentecost, and I chose to wear it then, and I have done on that day ever since. It was made for Debbie and given to her just before she was ordained deacon in 1990, and it became more significant when she wore it 30 years ago when she was in the first cohort of women to be ordained priest. We had moved from Southwell Diocese just after Easter that year, so she missed the big ordination of women candidates in April 94 in Coventry Cathedral. However, an extra service was arranged for her on June 11 at All Saints' Church, Leamington Spa, along with another colleague who had also missed out . Far from being a disappointment, I know Debs found it a very special moment. With the 30th anniversary of the first ordinations of women being marked this year, I was always going to wear it on Sunday.

Debbie in 1994 - with baby due in about 2 months!

Christian apps

A few months ago I spent some money I'd been given in lieu of a birthday present on an iPod Touch (16Gb by the way) It now serves as my diary, address book, to do list, Bible, and if I've got a Wifi connection I can check email, Facebook, Twitter, news headlines, etc. Nothing especially novel there I hear you say. In fact, I can now see why people get iPhones, given the extra flexibility it gives of not having to be near a Wifi connection.

However, here are three useful apps I have found, relating to my work as a minister.

Biblereader from http://www.olivetree.com/ Back in my Palm using days, I used this, but the iPod/iPhone implementation works really well. You can even display the same text in parallel versions, Greek, Hebrew, the lot. Reader is free, as are a number of non-copyright texts, and you simply pay for the other versions you require.

Methodist. Yes, I know I'm an Anglican, but it's a good and free app. News, thought and prayer for the day, Bible studies, podcasts and more.

My Diocese. An app which gives news from various dioceses of the Church of England, daily prayers and readings, information about the church, and you can locate your local churches. Not all Dicoeses (including mine) involved yet, but hopefully will develop into a comprehensive resource in the future. Well done Guildford Diocese for getting this off the ground.

Also a big thank-you to Simon Kershaw for his work in making PDA lectionaries you can load into Outlook and iCal. Synched to my iPod Touch, that means I always have the readings of the day and the Sunday and festival collects without even needing a book.

Any other suggestions out there?

Not now, George?

It's all a bit odd that England ended with George as its patron saint. After all, according to Wikipedia [so it must be true] we have to share him with: Aragon, Catalonia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine, Portugal, Russia, oh and Preston... (yes, Preston, Lancs.) I have often thought that Saint Alban would have been better - the first British martyr, killed during Roman occupation. He would probably be rather more palatable to our Scottish and Welsh neighbours as he predates England as a nation. He also has a saint's day nicely parked in the summer (June 22) - good for parties and BBQs.

As an alternative, maybe England could share Saint Cuthbert with her northern neighbour. He was born in what was then Northumbria, but is modern-day Scotland. Or perhaps we could go for the Venerable Bede - for his scholarship and historical writing. I guess some would champion Thomas a Becket.

Anway, we're stuck with George. He has a few unfortunate associations - the Crusades being the obvious one. Richard the Lion Heart is said to have adopted St George for England, and the Crusaders wore his cross to identify themselves, not they tended to commend themselves to locals. He soon caught on and was England's patron saint by the 14th century, and therefore he's not seen as someone to celebrate by anyone the English have conquered or dominated over the subsequent centuries.

But maybe it's time to reclaim him from those who are jingoistic, prejudiced or crassly nationalist. After all, our patron saint was [probably] born in modern-day Israel towards the end of the 3rd century, grew up in modern-day Turkey, had a Greek name and his father was a Roman official. Not a great candidate for being the patron saint of xenophobia, and not very English. In fact he ought to remind us that we can be inspired, challenged and learn from the stranger, the foreigner, the person who is 'different'.

He didn't kill any dragons, as that was probably a mythological way of depicting his courage. It seems he may have been martyred for refusing to comply with the Emperor's ruling that all should show their devotion to the Roman gods by sacrificing to them. Maybe his memory ought to make us a little more sympathetic to those who come today to England to escape imprisonment, torture and even death for being true to their consciences.

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• Let's raise a glass to multicultural Saint George (guardian.co.uk)

Lent Blog 3: when is Lent?

Was amused by the reaction of some friends about what days are in Lent. If you can work through the entry in the online Catholic Encyclopaedia, you'll see the exact timing and observance of Lent has changed over the centuries. However, the prevailing view in the Western Church seems to be that Lent runs from Ash Wednesday to Easter Eve (or some hold Maundy Thursday), omitting the Sundays. These are seen as days when the fasting of Lent could be relaxed a little (not a full reprieve, sorry!)

A further slight reprieve was traditionally allowed on the 4th Sunday of Lent or Laetere Sunday (Mothering Sunday to most people) when some concessions to celebration were traditionally allowed. A similar reprieve was traditional on the 3rd Sunday of Advent. You can even wear rose-coloured vestments, but I'll pass on that.

If you go by the Ash Wed - Easter Eve chronology and miss out the Sundays, that's 40 days. Easy innit?

Palindrome Day

In the US it's palindrome day. That's 01022010 if you do dates the American way. We'll have to wait until 1st Feb. Lots of smug British comments about the virtues of waiting have, no doubt, circulated online!


-- Post From My iPod Touch

Christmas comes early

The Headway Hotel in Morecambe is very quick off the mark this year. I thought it had some Christmas signs up to indicate bookings open for breaks, meals, parties etc. No, it's fully decorated for the season 2 months early.

Hope the staff are being spared carols and Bing Crosby for the next 9 weeks.


-- Post From My iPod Touch

Ascension Day

Probably the most neglected major festival.

Been thinking why we need the ascension. Why didn't Jesus just stop turning up? Concluded that we need it more than he did. It's all about letting go and taking responsibility.

-- Post From My iPod Touch

Lent Blog starts tomorrow.

If you just want to view Lent posts, click Lent under the labels heading in the right-hand side-bar

I have had an idea. During Lent I'm going to try and make an entry to the blog each day with some relevant reflection. True to the technical definition of Lent, the 40 days exclude the Sundays (otherwise Lent is 46 days long) so I may take a break 1 day in 7. I'm sure there's a precedent for that somewhere...

No idea if it will work, but I'll give it a try, and maybe someone might even read/comment from time to time.

In the meantime today is Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day, or Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday. It's the day the good stuff, such as eggs got eaten up before the austerity of Lent. (Apparently yesterday, Monday, is known as Collop Monday, when pieces, 'collops', of meat would be eaten up as well. You learn something new every year). So pancakes it is tonight.

It's also the day for shriving - confessing - before Lent begins. Given the Ash Wednesday service has so much penitence in it, I'm not quite sure why it was deemed necessary. Maybe today is for personal confession one-one with a priest/minister and tomorrow is when we do it corporately.

Finally, there's the question of whether to give something up for Lent, or start something new. If you're stuck for ideas or need help to meet that challenge, there's always the Cold Turkey site to help givers-up of stuff.

Personally I'm going for Lent as a transforming season, rather than plain abstinence. Another option you could go for is at the 40daysprayer website. The tag line is "Discovering more ways to pray: 40 Ways in 40 Days!". It's an initiative of the North Lancashire Methodist District

Omen or just a few numbers?

Saw some quite amusing coverage concerning today's date on the BBC website, called the Nick of Time. It all centres around the fact that today is 06/06/06 or 666 if you are going to be dramatic about it. You can enjoy the Beeb's coverage here Rather in the same way that the Millennium (that's two 'l's and two 'n's) occupied some people's imaginations to a superstitious degree, so the number 666 seems to have a grip on certain kinds of Christians (ironically the ones who would be most damning of anyone being superstitious!)

The number itself gets dismissed by one Satanist group as a Christian number, but at least it's an excuse for a good party. The origin is of course the number of the Beast in the book of Revelation (Rev 13:18). The best explanation I have seen is that it is a way of naming Emperor Nero in code - that's the way the whole book works, as far as I can see. I quote from the BBC again:

"One theory is that the letters "add up", in the form of numerology called Gematria, to Nero or "Neron Caesar", written as "Nrwn Qsr" in Hebrew letters
r = 200; s = 60; q = 100; n = 50; w = 6; r = 200; n = 50 Total: 666"

It all comes down to a rather arbitrary calculations of dates and times, and no doubt it will be marked by occultists and Christians alike for very different reasons. Personally I won't be joining either of them!

Pentecost revisited

Just to say that my best suggestion for a Pentecost song would be 'Fire' by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. You can view it here!! How good is that?

Particularly excellent entry by my good friend Steve Tilley on Pentecost

Mustard Seed Shavings: All Night Party